Engage Students

Student Engagement offers youth the ability to become actively involved in our mission to make life better for children. Whether you’re a small high school or a large university, these service-learning projects will inspire your students to get involved as civic leaders in our community.

Dance Marathon

Dance Marathon is a nationwide movement of over 250 colleges and high schools coming together to support their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. These students spend a year learning invaluable leadership and life skills while raising funds and interacting with patients and families of their local hospital. The year culminates with a 4-40 hour long event where students stay on their feet through dancing, games and entertainment in celebration of the impact they have made on their community.

Why stay on your feet for that long? To quote the first CMN Hospitals Dance Marathon mission statement: “We dance for those who can’t.” It’s this connection with local hospitals that makes Dance Marathon an event—and experience—unlike any other. Since 1991, Dance Marathon students have raised an incredible $62 million to provide life-saving equipment, fund cutting-edge pediatric research, and support uncompensated care for children in their communities.

Upcoming Marathons:

November 6, 2015 - University of Texas at Dallas Dance Marathon - Galaxy Room at the UTD Campus

For more information about starting a Dance Marathon for Children’s Medical Center, please call 214-456-8360.

Extra Life

​Extra Life is a gaming marathon that makes it easy for people to make a difference in their community while doing what they love to do. It was started in memory of a lively 15-year-old leukemia patient named Victoria Enmon who played games to help pass the time she spent in the hospital for her treatments. Though Tori eventually lost her battle, her story inspired a movement of gamers from all over the nation to help kids at their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.

Extra Life works just like a fundraising walk or run, only you don’t need to leave the comfort of your living room to participate. Simply register to play games for the kids at Children’s Medical Center and ask your family and friends for support. Then challenge yourself to play all 25 hours on one day, in one weekend, or several days before the main event. While many people choose to play video games, you can play whatever you’d like—tabletop games, card games, basketball—anything! Extra Life is all about doing something fun, challenging yourself to do it for a longer period of time, and ultimately raising lifesaving funds for kids in need.

When Is Extra Life?

Extra Life begins whenever you want it to! Just find a date and time that works with your schedule and start playing! If you can make it, our National Game Day will begin at exactly 8 a.m. Central Time on Saturday, November 7th, and ends at 8 a.m. on Sunday, November 8th. Remember, if you can’t make this day work, you can do Extra Life whenever it's convenient for you. Some folks even break it into two segments.